Grace Potter has been captivating audiences with her musical prowess since 2002. Her talents are split between her impressive multi-instrumentalism, her impassioned vocals, and her energized stage presence. Potter's band, The Nocturnals, was founded because of her talent – band mate Matt Burr saw her perform folk songs at a student-run venue.

Burr reached out to Potter and to other musicians and formed The Nocturnals. The band’s rapport with Potter is very in-sync, something which truly elevates their music to the highest reaches of roots rock. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals recorded their debut, Nothing But the Water, independently at first and then re-released it after being signed by Hollywood records in 2005.

Since then, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have only grown in popularity. They have played with Counting Crows and The Dave Matthews Band, have become a standard part of the festival circuit, and have released three more studio albums. Their latest album, entitled The Lion the Beast the Beat, was released this June and was their hardest album to record yet. Potter wasn’t happy with their first round of work on the album. Out of concern that the album lacked unity, Potter went on a personal journey up the California coast to Big Sur and then flew home to Vermont where she began to fit the piece’s she wanted together. The final result is a masterfully cohesive album built around the theme of humankind’s capacity to cause both great harm and tremendous good and the choices that lead to either.

In this session WXPN's Michaeal Majoun sits down with Grace Potter to talk about the making of her new record.

For their second album on the Hollywood label, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals certainly spent a fair amount of time concentrating on their craft. Although This Is Somewhere contains many of the same funky characteristics of the XPN hit 2005 album Nothing But The Water, there's a noticable shift in the songwriting. These new songs have way more to offer than groove. The Vermont-based band has a lot to be proud of this go 'round.

Along with Potter's wonderful, soulful vocals, the Nocturnals secret weapon is guitarist Scott Tournet, who has a great knack for playing just enough, never too much. The understated guitar work is on display on tracks like "Ain't No Time", while Grace shows her talent at balladry on "Big White Gate" and the exceptional, slow-simmering "Apologies," "Stop The Bus" ("...and turn the radio up high," as the lyrics go), is a quintessential GP&TN track, with a funky mid-tempo groove.

Will Grace & the boys overtake the legendary Phish as Vt.'s most valuable musical export? That's still to be determined, but they've already built a loyal fan base and sold a respectable number of albums. This Is Somewhere is the title, and the "somewhere" in question is most certainly on the right track.

With a soulful, bluesy voice that draws frequent comparisons to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, Grace Potter and her band, The Nocturnals, are clearly ready for the big time.

Authentic and original, the quartet's rootsy sound has won them fans not just in their native Vermont, but in various cities all over the country as well.

The band first got together in 2002 when they met at St. Lawrence University in New York, and immediately began writing songs in earnest. Recorded with Chuck Eller in Vermont, the band's debut album, Original Soul, was released in 2004 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Subsequent touring found them opening shows for performers like the Dave Matthews Band, Trey Anestasio, and Derek Trucks.

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For
their newest album, Nothing But The Water, the band
once again recruited Eller to record with them; this time,
in a nearly 150 year-old barn on the campus of Goddard College.
Continuing in the bluesy roots-rock vein of their debut, the
album puts guitarist Scott Tournet's resonator guitar leads
and Potter's keyboard and vocal work front and center. The
combination of impeccable musicianship and clever songwriting
is sure to please old fans and win plenty of new ones.